Ebony & Ivory



Ebony & Ivory are Dante's trademark pair of personally customized, semi-automatic pistols, designed to rapidly fire bullets instilled with demonic power  , and are the only weapon to appear in every installment in the series. The right gun, Ivory, was custom built for rapid firing and fast draw times, while the left gun, Ebony, has been modified for long-distance targeting and comfort. In Devil May Cry 3, upgrading it raises its max firepower.

Design
Ebony & Ivory are both M1911-style handguns chambered for the .45 ACP round, and boast a plethora of customized features:
 * Both pistols have been modified with pivot-style triggers as opposed to the 1911's usual straight-pull trigger
 * Both feature custom sight systems; Ebony uses a set of target sights, while Ivory uses a pair of combat sights
 * Both feature ported muzzle compensators that reduce recoil and counteract muzzle flip. Both barrels are extend through the compensators and are ported to match the cuts in the compensators.
 * Both use custom slides that have been noticeably thickened and reinforced along the slide travel rails and around the chamber and firing mechanism. The result is a slide that bears a resemblance to SIG-Sauer's M1911 line.
 * Rails have been bolted to the forward portion of both frames. These rails are used to hold the compensators in place.
 * Ebony utilizes an extended safety latch, a hooked trigger-guard and a ring hammer. Ivory uses a standard length safety latch, an rounded trigger-guard and a spur hammer.
 * Both have gold-plated magazine releases, hammers, safety switches and triggers.
 * Both weapons use ergonomic wood grips witch are inlaid with portraits of Victorian women; as befits their names, Ebony's is dark-haired, and Ivory's is fair-haired.
 * Both use double-stack magazines with slam-pads.
 * Ivory's frame and slide are both completely left-handed, with all of the controls being mirrored from their normal positions and with the ejection port aimed to the left. (This does not apply to DMC1, where only the ejection port is reversed)

The inward-facing side of each weapon's slide (Ebony's right and Ivory's left) is engraved with "Ebony & Ivory" in a cursive script along with a unique design. The outward facing sides (Ebony's left and Ivory's right) are engraved with a dedication to Dante which is explained in Devil May Cry, Vol. 1 to be from Nell Goldstein:
 * For Tony Redgrave
 * By .45 Art Warks

Oddly enough, this engraving also appears on the Luce & Ombra, a similar set of pistols belonging to Dante's father which the Ebony & Ivory are modeled after.

Trivia

 * Traditionally, the black piano keys were made from ebony and the white keys were covered with strips of ivory. Ebony & Ivory is also a song composed by Paul McCartney with Stevie Wonder.
 * The Ebony is the only gun that Vergil is ever shown using, during the battle against Arkham in Devil May Cry 3, after stating that he'll "try it [Dante's] way for once."
 * Whenever Dante fires both Ebony and Ivory in cutscenes, he tends to cross the guns together and then fire simultaneously.
 * In Sengoku Basara/Devil Kings, Nouhime/Lady Butterfly's sixth weapon is Ebony & Ivory.
 * In Devil May Cry 4, in the secret ending, Dante is seen reading a magazine called the "Two Hand Gun". This may be an allusion to Dante's preference for dual pistols.